9th April - Day 13 Base Camp 5200m (17,000 ft)
A day of consolidating base camp. Sorting out kit to remain at BC, what must go to ABC and what is needed for the 2 day hike through IBC (interim BC) up to ABC. This will influence the logistics of who travels when and how many yaks are needed. Tents need to be fine tuned to deal with the high winds which may gust over 100mph if we get a storm.
On the whole BC is a rocky barren windy dusty place but with the staggering dominance of Mt Everest some 20km away at the head of the Rongbuk valley.

The expedition food has to be unpacked, sorted and repacked for carriage up the glacier. For example we have some 2000 eggs all individually packed and several thousand individually packed vegetables. Each one is seperately packed in paper then in straw and then boxed. Even so there is some 20% wasteage over the trip.
60 yaks will be used on 3 yak trains each yak carrying 2 loads of 30kgs. This will ferry the 10 tonnes of gear and consumables up to ABC.

10th April - Day 14 Puja Day - Base Camp 5200m (17,000ft)
Today is very important. Its Puja day. This is the ceremony the sherpas hold which is a blessing for the success but primarily the safety of the expedition.
The day dawnes windless after a howler of a night. The sherpas have been up since 5:00am preparing a rock altar with pictures of the dalai lhama, offerings of sweets, foods, drinks. Prayer flags decorate the area and each climber brings a piece of kit, usually an ice axe, to be blessed with a pat of yak butter and to catch the smoke from the juniper branches that are burned.

Expedition team and sponsors flags are all added. As the ceremony progresses with the sherpas chanting prayers, tsampa flour and rice is thrown towards the mountain while requests for safe passage are made.
This ceremony is crucial and the sherpa will not proceed onto the mountain without it and also it must go well. It is considered good luck for a chuff (black bird) to land on top of the juniper sprig that is atop the prayer flag pole. We were doubly blessed when two landed together.
In the afternoon the climbers set about taking various routes for acclimatisation. Tony opted to go alone to 5700m which is approx. the height of Interim camp and so would be a good test.

11th April - Day 15 Base Camp 5200m (17,000ft)
A snowfall overnight at least means the tent is warmer and everything is dusted white in the morning. The unsettled weather plus the yaks needing a rest after having travelled two days up the valley to get here means that Russell and the Sherpa team will not depart for ABC until tomorrow.
The change in schedule leads to a morning in the mess tent telling tall tales of daring do, on mountains, racing boats, racing cars and explorations of far off lands.
During the afternoon most of the team members hike about 2000ft up the valley sides. This light exercise helpsacclimatisation.

12th April - Day 16 Base Camp 5200m (17,000ft)
The day dawnes crisp and a healthy -10degC. The days now follow a fairly regular pattern of clear nights, maybe some wind (perhaps -20degC outside and -8degC inside the tent). The mountain sun hits our camp at approx. 7:00am and transforms the chill to bearable zero. Full fleece and down kit is needed for a comfortable breakfast but by 9:30am its usually ok with just a fleece.
The team paires off and sets out on different climbs to gain height. Jean (the Frenchman attempting to be the oldest man to climb Everest at 62) and Tony set a target of 6000m (19,700ft). Andy, one of the guides, sets off before them to take some footage of Everest for Graham's BBC activity.
4 hours of steady climbing sees Jean and Tony reach their target. Now for some interesting decisions about the route down. To back climb is too dangerous but that alternatives are not very attractive either. Our descent is via a snowed up couloir, bolder fields and rock falls. A sort of controlled slide. Unfortunately this goes out of control momentarily and it looks very much like Tony has broken a finger on his right hand.
"C'est la vie" as they say in these situations. Compared to the general discomforts its a minor irritation but will have to be watched over the next weeks.

The 1st yak train pulls out heading for interim and then ABC today. 60 yaks with Russ and the sherpa team. They report in by radio later that all is well and good progress is being made.
BC is getting a bit busy now with more teams arriving. In addition to ourselves there is the British forces team, a chinese tibetan team with a comms. dish big enough to live under (we think they are planning live TV from the top), a dutch team, a spanish team planning to climb dressed in the same clothing as Mallory and Irvines team in '24 and some Russians who are blazing ahead with little regard for proper acclimatisation and they are already fixing rope onto the North Col in the most diabolically dangerous location (we'll be taking a different route).

13th April - Day 17 Base Camp 5200m
An easier day planned today after yesterday's push to 6000m. Only Chris and Andy, two of the guides, have been higher than Jean and Tony. They went to 6300m.
Various emails to catch up on for all members of the team and Chris Warner and Tony are trying to link up the schools projects that they are running off the www.capgemini.co.uk/everest2000 website in conjunction with Alan Cottle at Surrey County and schools projects Chris is running back in Maryland USA.
Kieron Mackenzie joines the climbing team today. He's been climbing Island Peak on the south side so is well acclimatised. This now makes two scots on the team. After a light hike up the glacier, Tony spends most of the afternoon trying to sort out the BC electrical systems which have been giving us some trouble.
Various loose connections etc. later we are back on line with radios, laptop, fax, satellite phone and distribution for lighting etc. A couple of minor niggles still to resolve but they will have to wait.
Graham has been out filming more footage for his BBC activities. For more details and to get Grahams perspective on the expedition so far see www.bbc.co.uk
Chris Warner is also sending dispatches back to www.mountainzone.com together with digital images and eventually video footage.
Of course the Himex site on www.himex.com will also carry coverage as will www.snowandrock.com.

14th April - Day 18 Base Camp 5200m
For half the team it's their last day at BC. They will pull out for interim camp at 5700m tomorrow. The rest of us will go in two days. But this means all our kit will go up on the yak train tomorrow and so a morning is spent packing barrels again etc.
Some folk are getting twitchy about not having enough altitude. Tony sets off to tag 6000m on the other side of the valley. Ivan joins him but pulls out 300m above BC. The route crosses an exciting series of pinnacles leading to a pre-summit pinnacle of 6020m and thats good enough for a 3 hour climb with the weather deteriorating and over an hour to descend.
Back at camp, Latchu excels with rosti and apple pie for dinner and a round of trivial puruit questions with a bunch of tall stories the night closes.

Tony Kelly